California

California is a large state on the West Coast of the United States, with its capital at Sacramento. The state was originally settled by Spain after it built missions to convert the Chumash and Tongva tribes to Christianity, and it would become a part of Mexico after the Mexican War of Independence in 1821 and then the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War. The 1848 California Gold Rush led to an influx of settlers from the rest of America, and California became a diverse mixture of Mexicans (many of whom were in California since before the war), white Americans, and African-Americans that moved into the cities during the 1930s. During the 20th century, California became the birthplace of the Hollywood film industry, the hippie counterculture movement, the Silicon Valley computer industry, and West Coast hip-hop, and cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco became global cities. In 2015, California had a population of 39,144,818 people.